“Bad Judgment on the Mother’s Part”

Here in Minnesota, we are experiencing one of the snowiest winters ever. I think this year’s winter currently ranks #2 in recorded history, and if we get the six to 12 inches forecast for next week, we may challenge the record for snowfall in a winter. Everywhere you look there are snowbanks.
Which doesn’t explain, of course, this news story, which falls into that category of incomprehensible behavior that makes you think the human race has no future. A 21-year-old woman threw her 18-day-old baby girl into a snowbank, from which it was rescued by a passer-by:

A mother hurled her 18-day-old baby girl into a snowbank in south Minneapolis Saturday morning, horrified witnesses told police.
The 21-year-old mother was arrested and is expected to face charges of child neglect and endangerment, said Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer.
“I think you can only call it bad judgment on the mother’s part, given what the temperature conditions were,” he said. “She made a decision that was completely inappropriate.”

That isn’t exactly what I would call it.

The infant, who was wearing only a T-shirt and a blanket in 16-degree weather, was treated for exposure at Hennepin County Medical Center. … At the time she was taken to the hospital, her body’s core temperature was 95 degrees, Palmer said, adding, “It was initially life-threatening.” …
The woman and a man were fighting near their home in the 1800 block of 11th Avenue S. shortly after 8 a.m. when the man fled and the woman followed him, police said. About a block north of their residence, at a bridge crossing Interstate 94, the woman threw the child into the snowbank.
A man who was getting off a Metro Transit bus called 911 when he saw what had happened. He took the baby out of the snowbank….

One can only hope that this baby will get a second chance in a different home. Still, one wonders: aren’t some aspects of motherhood supposed to be instinctive? Is there any other species in which a mother would toss her infant into a snowbank? What sort of breakdown in our civilization are we living through?